The Secret Chapters
by Frozen Time
Summary: Arakawa would have kept it a secret if she could, but the lid to her Pandora's Box was opened. Three guesses who did it. -dream novel-


**Title:** The Secret Chapters

**Published:** April 20, 2013

**Author:** Ribbon

**Target:** Marui Bunta

**Default Name:** Arakawa Maiko

**Author's Note:** It's back! Yes, the sequel to Writers' Block is finally here! Actually it's been out for like a year, but I'm royally stumped for this story, so don't expect regular updates on this. Maybe once I finish Room Service. Or, you know, just never. LOL. Also, there were some icons I used in this story that didn't show up on FanFiction, so if you even notice Marui's texts or anything lacking in pep, it's probably because FanFiction obliterated the love heart icons. LOL. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

I like to think being a writer is an enriching experience in weird and wonderful ways; one is trained to see things from many perspectives to be able to write differently. Since regressing back into my writer's block, I've begun to pay more attention to memories linked to my over thinking. Maybe that's why I'm here, writing to myself.

Privately, I think that while the weird experiences aren't the most pleasant to wade through, they leave loose ends, and loose ends are synonymous, to me, for plot twists. I suppose the few of the following are plot twists:

Misunderstandings.

The act of questioning one's sexuality.

The simple answers.

I've had weird experiences that have turned out wonderful, but... this is just one experience I hope Niou doesn't spread.

**THE SECRET CHAPTERS**

_Chapter One_

Misunderstandings was problem number one.

The final month of school tapered off perfectly when somewhere near the end of the semester, Marui came down with a transition cold and possibly hay fever. (I didn't know that fact for sure, but I wouldn't have put it past him.) He left school halfway through Wednesday looking like he was a rotting caricature (or, well, not quite to that degree, since I doubted it was possible for Marui to ever look unattractive), and from the sight of him I didn't expect he would come to school for the rest of the week.

I called him Wednesday night to make sure he was still alive. Thankfully, he was. "Make sure you don't come to school for the rest of the week, alright?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Firstly, because colds spread. Lastly, I don't want you to keel over at the top of a staircase."

"Aw, that's so kind of you, Elmo."

"You're welcome." I said. "So, your notes are covered, and I'll visit on Friday to make sure you're still alive. Okay, bye."

"Hey, not so fast."

"Go and get some sleep, Marui. You sound like you've been strangled."

"Heh. Are you worried?"

"Do you want me to be?"

"Ah, love burns..."

"I bet your forehead does, too. Go to sleep."

"Yes, mother." He cooed. "Promise you'll visit Friday?"

"Realistically, what would I do with my life if or when you die?"

I hung up before he could begin his ceaseless teasing.

It had been about half a year since I'd started dating him, and the only thing that had changed was my reluctance to be an open person in our relationship.

I received some teasing anyway, and I think the generally gist of it was conveyed through his multiple texts:_ 'Realistically, you would come to my grave every day, cry for a few hours and live the rest of your days in despair and agony. You would refuse any man who tries to date you because you can't get over the fact that I'm dead. And finally, when you pass away from grief at my grave, someone (Jackal) will have the decency to bury you next to me. Heh. '_

Or, no. Marui was even more open than he used to be. Too open.

I texted back: _'Unless Niou gets to me first, in which case you would haunt him until he kills himself and my soul is free from some kind of eternal void, right?'_

Another text. _'Haha. He wouldn't get that far. Trust me.'_

_'Jackal wouldn't bury me if you still owed him money,'_ I texted back.

The last text Marui sent me before I set my phone down for the night (or early morning, I couldn't really tell which) was: _'It's okay, his name is on my will. Heh. Everything is taken care of. ;)'_

Around that time, it was nearing April Fool's Day, and so to speak, it was Niou's favorite day of the year. Likely even more so than the start of summer break. He possibly thought about it every spare moment of his time, because on Thursday, a few weeks before April Fool's Day, he came to me with a proposition.

I was copying notes for Marui while eating lunch when Niou turned around in his seat, looking as hyped up as a person (especially Niou) could be after a can of hot coffee. I was very close to asking God why nothing had disturbed my peaceful existence when Niou said, "Yo, Arakawa."

I flicked a look up and went back to copying notes. "Niou. Hello."

"No book to read today?"

I paused to stare at him. "It might have escaped your notice, but I have two in my face and a pen in my hand."

"That's a pity, I wanted to talk to you."

"I'm kind of busy."

"Great, so you still have some time."

Being in a relationship with Marui did something to a person. I'd become a slightly more submissive person, evidenced by the fact that Marui owed me double the amount he owed his friend Jackal. And he still owed his friend quite a substantial amount.

"I had something in mind for a prank."

"And you're telling me this because..."

"Because this year we're pranking Marui."

"Don't you do that every year?" I asked.

"No, we pranked Kirihara last year." He said. "But we pranked Marui every other year, and this year is no different. This year, though, we have an advantage."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then, we're back to deuce." (1)

"I don't understand tennis jokes, but I'm sure it was hilarious."

"Naturally." Niou drawled. "So, hear me out."

He took my silence as a sign that I was giving him permission to continue.

"Basically, we're going to trick Marui into thinking you got cold feet on him." Niou said.

"That's... kind of cruel."

"Only kind of."

"You're a horrible person."

"So are you. That's why we get on so well."

I couldn't argue with that; he had a good point.

This time, he took my silence as approval of his idea, and the necessary signature for our verbal contract. "Don't quake in your boots, Arakawa; most of my jokes end in harmless fits of laughter."

"I've never seen any evidence of that."

"Well, no one's been hospitalized yet, have they?"

I thought about the time Marui smoothly fell down a staircase thanks to a coincidentally lingering banana peel: one of my many recollections of the times that people went to or nearly went to the hospital.

"Not long-term." I said.

"There." Niou said, spreading his hands in an 'I rest my case' gesture. "This prank will be harmless, and no one will be hospitalized."

_- x -_

"You can't be serious."

Niou smirked at me over the rim of his coffee. I couldn't help but think that Niou was pranking me as much as he was Marui. "Think about it, Arakawa. Jackal wouldn't do it, even if you paid him. And trust me—he needs the money."

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know why you bother saying 'trust me' anymore. It doesn't work."

He dismissed me with a wave of his hand. "I'm not finished. Yagyuu and Yanagi are too sensible to take part in this. Yukimura would be too obvious. And Sanada is out of the question. Can you imagine him coming onto you—?"

"Please don't give me a terrifying mental image."

"Oh, I take it Marui's aren't? Though I agree it would be quite terrifying to think of Sanada in that light."

"Marui gives me cute and fluffy mental images."

This time, he raised an eyebrow. "He's rubbing off on you."

It was after school, and Niou had picked a nearby coffee shop—Niou's favorite, called something ridiculous like Temperature's—to start planning for the prank that was to arrive in a few weeks. He wanted a grand way to finish the school year, and he had stated several times that this was going to be it. I was his key piece in ensuring that this would be a successful waste of time, in both his words and mine.

I shrugged, circling back to the original topic and the matter that I had a huge issue with. "So you're telling me that Kirihara is the only one left. Out of _all_ the people in the world, Kirihara."

"That's exactly what I'm telling you."

"And... what exactly does it involve? Depending on the circumstances, I might agree."

"Step one is to start calling him Akaya instead of Kirihara." He said. "Just don't make it obvious that you're—"

"—going out of my way to call him that, or it'll be a dead give away." I finished. He mentioned it a couple of times before already.

Niou raised an eyebrow at me. "You'd be surprised by how sharp your boyfriend is when he has to be."

I sighed. "I just hope it doesn't end badly."

"Nothing ends badly with Marui." He said. Then he smirked. "Trust me."

_- x -_

When I went to visit Marui on Friday, he was looking healthier than he had on Wednesday. So much, in fact, that I let him hug me. He had to let go quickly, for the objects in my hand were threatening to fall.

"I have some presents for you." I said, putting his notebooks in one hand, and a flask of hot chocolate in the other. "I thought making herbal remedies would be reasonably disastrous and might end up killing you, so I thought anything hot was fine."

"Anything's fine. You're fine. Hey, is that cake in your hands? It smells good."

I sighed. He just kept on grinning, perhaps even more so when I snuck my fingers under his fringe to check his temperature. Not absurdly hot, but not completely normal, either. "These are for later. How are you sleeping?"

"Define."

"Have you been sleeping enough?"

"Yes."

"Splitting headache?"

"No."

"Eaten enough?"

"Never."

"That's something I would fix if I knew how to cook."

He let me come inside, and I put the box on the coffee table in front of where we sat down. I said hi to his younger two brothers, who were too busy trying to kill each other on Street Fighter to do more than enthusiastically return the greeting.

"What's the occasion?" Marui asked, licking his lips at the sight of a mere box. "It smells kind of like caramel."

"The end of the school year." I said, deciding to humor him and open the box. "I had a friend make them for me, so they're not exactly the same ones that Jackal tells me you buy, but a salt caramel cream puff is a salt caramel cream puff."

He stared at the cream puffs like he was seeing God's face in a mundane object.

"I didn't make them." I said, holding up my hands defensively. "So it's safe to eat them. I can vouch for you."

"You ate one?"

"I was the taste tester. The rest are yours."

He didn't need to be told twice. He was also very quick to react when Yosuke tried to snatch up a cream puff. The hand was swatted away.

I frowned. "Your brothers can have some, too."

"There are only six of them."

"They can have one each and you can have four. No issue."

He looked at me seriously. "Maiko." He gestured to the salt caramel cream puffs. "These are salt caramel cream puffs."

I looked up at him with equal seriousness. "Marui." I gestured to his brothers. "These are your brothers."

There was a pause. Then he started to crack up. "You're so cute when you try to act serious."

Blushing became a regular reaction to comments like that. One thing I can say that Marui taught me was how to blush, not that I was proud of it.

"You're so cute when you blush."

"Marui."

"Thanks for the cream puffs, nee-san." Yosuke said. He took one and bit into it to hold it in place until he finished the match, which he eventually did. His triumphance was muffled by the cream in his mouth.

"You're welcome." I said.

"These are good." Atsuro commented upon retrieving one and taking a bite.

"I thought so too." I said. We connected for a moment.

Then he and Yosuke went back to playing Street Fighter.

"So." Marui said. "April fifth. That's your birthday, isn't it?"

I didn't remember telling him that. "How did you know?"

"Facebook." He poured himself some hot chocolate and took a sip. He paused for a moment, tilting his head in the fashion of a cat, and then looked approvingly at the cup. I felt it was safe to assume that the taste and sugar content was to his liking.

Right. Of course. I, at least, asked Jackal when Marui's was. "Okay, well yes. It is."

"So what do you want to do?"

Realistically, most of my birthdays were usually spent in my room, eating a cake that my mom bought from the store because she had to go to work and saving amusing pictures from Tumblr onto the new thirty-two gig USB my father bought for me.

"Well..." I said.

"Hmm?"

"I don't know. You pick."

"We can go see a movie."

"Or I can just come over and watch one."

He considered this. "You can come over and we can watch Pirates of the Caribbean."

"Again."

"You bring the cake."

"As usual."

"I'll buy a present."

"Will you borrow money from me for it?"

"No, it's your birthday. I'll borrow from Jackal."

I sighed. I'd have to warn Jackal in advance.

"Hey, I'm going back to school on Monday." He said. "Come visit me at practice, would you? I want to show you something."

"Tennis practice? Is that a good idea?"

"I'll go to morning practice." He said. "Not the other one."

He sounded unusually decisive. I wondered if there was a reason he would rather skip afternoon practice.

"Alright." I said. And so would commence a time that I would begin relaying Niou information. I felt like a complete traitor, looking at that harmless face and knowing that I would have to betray him for a few weeks, just to help Niou with his prank.

Which I had no idea why I was doing. I recalled something to the effect of Niou calling us both assholes and me commenting that he had a good point. I never recalled giving myself a reason to go along with this.

But Niou knew that I wouldn't bail on him. I sighed.

Out loud. "Hmm? What's up, Elmo?"

"Can I have a hug?"

He set his hot chocolate and notebooks down on the table and gladly obliged, wrapping his arms tightly around me. His cheek never got to resting on my head, because he was the same height as me, if not slightly shorter.

"Come to morning practice on Monday." Marui said. "I'll pick you up from your house at twenty to seven. Your house isn't that far from school."

I stared at him. So _early_.

He just grinned at me.

I ate dinner at Marui's house, and Mom came to pick me up on her way back from work; I didn't feel like walking and she didn't feel like making me, so it balanced out quite nicely. Marui told me to come and visit on the weekends. I told him I might, and if not, we always had messenger.

_- x -_

Monday morning was the commencement of the prank. Niou had informed me that Akaya was aware of the happenings, and would do his best to act as normally as possible. Everything would proceed smoothly, so long as Marui didn't turn up at afternoon practice instead. Niou assured me that such a thing would not be happening.

"Why not?" I asked.

"You'll see, if you come to one of our afternoon practices."

I was curious, but at the very least, I would wait until Marui was well enough to attend afternoon practices.

In the morning, Marui retrieved me from my house, eating a sugary donut. I didn't ask how many he'd eaten beforehand. "Morning, Elmo."

"Morning." I said.

"We should make this a regular occurence."

The thought of getting up at this time every day was not pleasing. "I don't know about that. It depends on how much I enjoy this."

"You should just do it because you're a nice person."

"Hah! That's a good one! Who told you that, Niou?"

"Nope. Words of the heart." He leaned over and pecked me on the lips before I could react. I couldn't exactly complain, because he tasted sugary. "You hungry?"

"I didn't eat anything yet, but I'll stop by the convenience store on the way."

I picked up some flavored bread, a canned coffee, and a magazine that looked vaguely interesting to keep me busy, just in case I got bored. Marui made sure it was Shounen JUMP; if, at least, I wasn't going to watch something, I may as well dignify myself by reading some tasteful manga. I assumed that he was going to take it off me once I was done with it.

When we made it to the tennis courts, about half of the tennis team was there. Marui went to go get changed, and hung out with me afterwards for about three minutes. Then Jackal came by and told him Sanada wanted them to start warming up.

"Morning, Jackal." I said when he saw me.

"Hey." He said. "I never see you come around morning practice."

"I was forced into it by this guy." I said, jerking my head towards Marui. He grinned. "On the bright side, he didn't force me to buy him anything."

Jackal stared at the JUMP magazine. "Then..."

I looked at it. "This... is for me."

He looked doubtfully at me. "Well, alright. We should get going to practice."

"Alright. Have fun." I said. Jackal walked ahead, and Marui grinned at me before padding off after his best friend. "I guess."

It was several moments later when Niou turned up. "Yo, Arakawa. You're early this morning."

"This morning? It might have escaped your notice, but this is the first time I've come to see one of Marui's practices. Ever."

"That's a shame. How long have you been dating again?"

"Shut up. Sport doesn't appeal to me and I don't understand it."

"Then here's for you to start learning." He drawled. "Kirihara will turn up soon enough. If he turns up halfway through practice and disappears before it ends, well, that's even better."

"I really hate you. Have I ever told you that?"

"The feeling is mutual. Have I ever told you that?"

We heard yelling from the court. It sounded something like, _"Niou! Stop slacking off!"_ It sounded like Sanada.

"My, my. The beast has risen." He drawled. "I must leave you to your devices. And if you fail, well, consider what will happen next year."

"I'll get pranked."

"Right."

"Is that supposed to be some kind of threat?"

Niou just chuckled. He didn't dignify himself with a response, partially because he was that kind of person, and partially because Sanada was starting to raise his voice to a slightly inhumane level. He said it as though it were a threat, and I didn't doubt that he would pass up the oppurtunity to exact vengeance on me, but somehow I couldn't see a joke turning into a threat unless it directly threatened my existence. We would have to see about that.

To his credit, Kirihard did come soon enough. I was settled on the grass, eating my bread and reading manga.

He caught my attention when he made a grand entrance, caling, "Maiko-senpai! Morning!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a grand change in movement from a blur of red. I guessed that it was Marui. And it made me feel very, very uncomfortable. I tried to keep my voice to a normal volume. "Hey, Akaya. Shouldn't you be at morning practice?"

For a moment, he gave me a I-thought-Niou-senpai-told-you look. Then I saw it click, and he ruffled his already-messy hair. "Well, about that..."

"Never mind. I think I can guess." I said. He sat himself down on the grass next to me. "So, how does it feel to almost be graduating?"

"So, how does it feel to be dating Marui-senpai?"

"Alright, well played." I said. "As long as you're as uncomfortable and unpartial to this as I am, then I have no trouble doing this."

"Lucky for you, you're covered on that." He said. "Hey, look—he's looking this way."

Kirihara stuck his hand up and waved wildly at Marui. There was a pause before the redhead slowly waved back. Kirihara grinned. I sighed.

"You know you're only fueling the flames, right?"

"You know that the prank is the petrol, right?"

"You have a way with words, my friend." I said.

"What're you reading?" Kirihara asked, craning his next to look over my shoulder and grinned when he realized what it was. "You've turned to shounen manga, now?"

"In my defense, Marui was the one who picked it out. I needed something to keep me entertained during tennis practice, because I don't understand anything that's going on."

"You could always Google it."

"Sport is all Greek to me, so it wouldn't matter either way."

"Really? I never thought Greek was a physical activity."

"Obviously you don't get that because you don't use Urban Dictionary."

"What's that?"

"Just promise me you won't look it up."

"Why not?"

"Let's just sat that Tumblr is better at teaching some things in life than adults."

Kirihara stuck around until practice was nearly over. He happened to glance at my watch during the middle of a conversation and said, "Crap, is that the time already?" He grabbed my wrist and held the watch close to his face to make sure he wasn't delusional. Whether if it was just for sure or him being typically dramatic, I didn't know. He was quick enough to let go. "I gotta run; I promised that guy I'd be back by the end of practice."

"Oh, okay. I'll deal with the brunt of everything because I'm a nice person."

He burst out laughing. "Who told you that, Niou-senpai?"

"I said that myself just this morning."

In amidst his loud goodbye rambling, he made extra sure to add a "—Maiko—" before he ran away. I could just feel Marui's stare burning in to me, and it was extremely discomforting. Knowing that after practice he would question me on the matter made it slightly worse. Just slightly.

But to my surprise, when practice finished and Marui changed, he just gathered up his belongings, stole my magazine and slung an arm around me. "Let's go to class," he said cheerily. Then we started to walk.

He was bothered. But, well, I sensed that somewhere beneath his exterior, he was contemplating something along the lines of what-the-hell-just-happened.

I really hated Niou. And myself. "Hey, Marui?"

"Hmm?" He looked up from the magazine. "What's up?"

I decided at the last minute that I wasn't brave enough to ask.

"Um... never mind."

Then he did an un-Marui like thing. He stared at me. Was I just fueling the flames in his mind? Was he wondering if it had something to do with Kirihara?

It must have been, because Marui asked. For the first time. "No, go on."

"I said never mind."

"Maiko."

"Marui."

He paused, but surprisingly, he let the matter drop. "Fine."

We were hardly a few more paces before he picked the conversation back up.

"So why don't you call me Bunta?"

"Do you want me to?"

He gave me a 'no, really' look.

"I don't know. I always thought Maiko and Marui sounded better together. Like Bonnie and Clyde. Or..."

"Musashi and Kojirou."

"Yeah." I said, feeling a little brighter. "Like them."

"Okay, now let's bear in mind that Bonnie and Clyde were criminals. And... Musashi and Kojirou attempted to be criminals. They just failed, that's all."

I laughed, inwardly relieved that Marui seemed cheery again. "If we ever attempted to be criminals, we would fail."

"Right. Because I would take a bullet for you and die."

"And I would kill myself."

Marui wasn't particularly one for suicide jokes. But he grinned, likely having put this morning's occurrence with Kirihara behind.

_- x -_

When I logged onto Facebook that night, I had an inbox waiting from Kirihara.

_Kirihara Akaya:_ Hi, Arakawa-senpai. Have you seen this?

Oh, good. He was still calling me by my surname.

Following his message was a Facebook link, and I hovered my mouse over it for quite a while before clicking it. I blinkingly found myself on Marui's wall.

Someone had made a post on it.

**Akutagawa Jirou to Marui Bunta:** Marui-kun, you weren't there today!

I had never heard of an Akutagawa Jirou. Marui mentioned most of his friends' names at least once. But coupled with the fact that, when I checked his profile, this Akutagawa person was from Hyoutei, Marui had never made any mentions to me of his existence.

Actually, given some thought, the name did sound a little bit familiar. Had Marui mentioned him before? I didn't think he did.

Actually, that wasn't the point. "You weren't there today!" seemed to suggest that Marui should have been somewhere with this Akutagawa Jirou after school instead of with me watching Pirates of the Caribbean (again) at my house.

**Marui Bunta:** Heh. I was sick today.

**Akutagawa Jirou:** Ehh? You could have told me. ): So mean, Marui-kun~

I stared at the screen, wondering if a male had really used a tilde on the end of his sentence.

**Marui Bunta:** Huh? So what did you do the whole practice, then?

Then an interjection.

**Niou Masaharu:** He slept the entire time.

**Marui Bunta:** Get out, Niou.

**Niou Masaharu:** Oh, am I interrupting a lover's quarrel? I'll just leave you to it, then.

That response was over an hour ago, and the latest activity appeared to have been Niou liking his own comment.

Marui was stupid enough to leave his chat status as online, so it was obvious that he had ignored Niou. But something about that Akutagawa kid made me... kind of unnerved. And the fact that Marui didn't respond to Niou with some kind of insult didn't exactly put my mind at rest.

I backed off and went to respond to Kirihara's inbox.

_Arakawa Maiko:_ What is this?

Luckily, he was online.

_Kirihara Akaya:_ I don't know. I thought he was trying to get back at you for this morning, because you have to admit, he DID look pretty annoyed. You owe me for this.

_Arakawa Maiko:_ Yeah, no. Tell that to Niou.

_Kirihara Akaya:_ Okay, you have a point. But he gave us some liberty, so let's make a big show.

_Arakawa Maiko:_ What exactly did you have in mind?

A few moments later, a notification came up. Kirihara had posted on my wall:

**Kirihara Akaya:** Temperature's tomorrow afternoon?

He wasn't kidding when he said make a big show.

**Arakawa Maiko:** Why are you posting that here?

**Kirihara Akaya:** Because you never check your messages.

This kid...

**Arakawa Maiko:** Sure. What do you need?

**Kirihara Akaya:** English tutoring. ):

**Arakawa Maiko:** *Everything tutoring. Bring your own money or don't bother coming.

**Kirihara Akaya:** You're funny. Has anyone ever told you that?

**Arakawa Maiko:** I hear it from Niou Masaharu all the time.

Having been successfully tagged in the conversation, Niou was quick to join.

**Niou Masaharu:** I heard someone lovingly call my name.

He liked his own post.

**Arakawa Maiko:** Might want to get your ears checked.

**Niou Masaharu:** *I saw someone lovingly write my name.

Again, he liked his own post.

**Arakawa Maiko:** Don't flatter yourself.

**Niou Masaharu:** Am I flattering?

Yet again, he gave himself another like.

**Kirihara Akaya:** Way to leave me out.

I thought for a moment, and then, carefully:

**Arakawa Maiko:** It's alright, we love you all the same.

**Niou Masaharu:** Pfeh, you're alone on that one, Arakawa.

I decided to leave the conversation hanging, in case I said something that would ruin the tone the three of us had set. I decided to leave Facebook alone for a little while, and savor the small hope that Marui was waiting for me on instant messenger, possibly with the answers for the English homework from today.

Immediately, I was greeted with a message from the devil.

**GENIUS:** Hey, Elmo. You doing anything tomorrow? Heh.

I paused, wondering if this was a lead-on of some sort, or something else completely. I saw that he had been on Facebook until I closed the window, and he could have guessed that I was online when I was posting messages.

**MAKKO:** Akaya needs help with English.

**GENIUS:** His Japanese is bad enough.

I noticed the immediate drop-off from his peppy speech.

**GENIUS:** So why do you call him Akaya?

**MAKKO: **Huh? He asked me to.

**GENIUS:** So you just agreed?

**MAKKO:** Yeah... why not?

**GENIUS:** Because I'm pretty sure we're dating.

Four posts and no pep. So it wasn't just a coincidence.

**MAKKO: **We are. You just never asked.

**GENIUS:** Alright then.

I was expecting him to go on, but he didn't. Marui's problem was that he didn't ask questions.

**GENIUS:** I was going to ask you to go somewhere with me, but I guess you're busy, huh.

Oh.

**MAKKO:** Where to?

**GENIUS:** Nowhere important.

What was that supposed to mean?

**MAKKO: **Marui?

There was a slight delay before I saw _GENIUS is typing..._ at the bottom of the screen.

**GENIUS:** Heh. Don't even worry about it.

**GENIUS:** So you won't be coming to afternoon practice?

**MAKKO: **I guess not. I'm going to Temperature's.

**GENIUS:** Okay.

Even though I was meant to be the one pulling the prank under Niou's guidance, it didn't just sound like Marui was trying to pull my leg. I could either credit him for being an impressive actor, or credit him for legitimately doing something else.

But Marui didn't ask about Akaya, so in some sense, I had no right to ask about what he was going to do tomorrow afternoon.

So I did something I thought I wouldn't do.

I logged back on to Facebook, thankfully invisible. One of my notifs consisted of:

**Kirihara Akaya:** Did everyone leave me?

The other notif was Kirihara posting a link to a forever alone picture. I took the time to like the picture, and then started to compose a new message.

_Arakawa Maiko:_ Do you give life advice?

I sent it to Jackal.

* * *

**Princo & Ribbon**

_April 14, 2014._

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1. Part of the scoring system in tennis. Deuce is basically synonymous for 40 - 40, so that's why you never hear umpires calling 'forty all.' Just as 40 succeeds 30, deuce succeeds advantage. So... let's say it's A versus B, and the score is 30 all. A wins a point, and so A gets the "advantage." Then B wins a point, and they go to "deuce." Oh, and if any of you were curious, the only reason I threw deuce in there is because Niou said "advantage" before. And also because I have a terrible sense of humor LOL.


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